None of this will be a surprise to anyone who worked there on the front line in recent years. Unfortunately the management there have never had a clue and seem to think that good business skills start and end at being ruthless to the staff and squeezing every last drop out of them "because they can". Can't put my finger on it but its always clown town down Exeter way regardless of who's in charge - but the ineptitude is compounded by greed. If they found £10m in the street then by the end of the year they'd have managed to turn it into a £50m loss citing Brexit uncertainty increased fuel and pilot costs and economic headwinds. It's like a stuck record. That would be after taking £20m of it in bonuses. Worse places to work? Probably, but that's not the point. There were years and years when they weren't on the ropes but they could have worked with the staff to create a healthy and viable workplace people wanted to stay long term, but that's not considered good business is it, even for the last 2 years when they've been haemmoraging pilots. "It's a market thing you know, there's no problem here". It brought me to my knees after too many years. Constant onslaught of ruthlessly fatiguing rosters, calamitous disruption, no home life, and the daily misery delivering an appalling service and ruining people's plans - mainly due to equipment everybody knows isn't or ever will be fit for purpose; the Dash 8 - engineering nightmare which barely worked when it was brand new, island hopping local van which they thought they could pass off as an airliner and passengers wouldn't notice, 2-3hrs in a shaking old bomber? Meanwhile send your actual airliner to do BHX-BHD etc. Brilliant. Don't get me wrong, the money's okay but that's not the point, most captains have been begging for years for LESS money, ie part time so they can have a life. No? Ok, we're leaving then. Geniuses.
Absolutely fantastic people working there, superb training, the cabin crew especially are as good as any anywhere in the world, but if only I'd known years ago how much better my life could have been had I left sooner and might even live a bit longer. I really wish those sticking it out the best of luck, but to anyone maybe lacking confidence but thinking about moving I'd say do it, I really doubt you'll regret it.
Last edited by six-sixty; 5th Apr 2019 at 14:31.